Carrie Fisher’s Obituary Request Was Typically Witty and Wonderful

Today we mourn the loss of Carrie Fisher: Iconic actor, talented author, brilliant script doctor and, most of all, an incomparable force to be reckoned with. There are so many great adjectives you could use to describe Fisher: Uncompromising, unapologetic, fierce, witty, relatable, real, honest. She took all of those qualities and put them to work in her books — from memoirs to novels, Fisher had a knack for telling poignant and painful stories with wit and wisdom. Writing a worthy obituary for one of the best and boldest women on this planet or any other is surely an impossible task…so it’s a good thing that the perfect obit basically already exists, and unsurprisingly, Fisher came up with it herself.

In 2008, Carrie Fisher published Wishful Drinking, turning her fantastic one-woman show into an autobiographical book that recounts her Hollywood upbringing and the unique and sometimes painful experience of coming-of-age on the set of Star Wars. While Princess Leia’s bikini instantly became her most famous outfit, it was Leia’s more modest white ensemble that caused a bit of a stir on set. As Fisher explains in Wishful Drinking, it led to a hilariously mind-boggling exchange with director George Lucas:

George comes up to me the first day of filming and he takes one look at the dress and says, ‘You can’t wear a bra under that dress.’

So, I say, ‘Okay, I’ll bite. Why?’

And he says, ‘Because. . . there’s no underwear in space.’

What happens is you go to space and you become weightless. So far so good, right? But then your body expands??? But your bra doesn’t—so you get strangled by your own bra.

A totally absurd idea, especially because, like, if a cotton or polyester blend bra with minimal wiring is that dangerous, then surely that damn gold bikini would obliterate you? In any case, Lucas’ baffling underwear theory gave Fisher a great idea for her own obituary:

Now I think that this would make for a fantastic obit—so I tell my younger friends that no matter how I go, I want it reported that I drowned in moonlight, strangled by my own bra.

Carrie Fisher has passed away at the age of 60. She drowned in moonlight, strangled by her own bra.